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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (203461)	9/18/2006 6:45:12 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Respond to of 281500

CB, I guess they didn't use the masks because they were there, breathing the air, and didn't think it was bad enough to bother with masks. While my memory isn't perfect, within a week or so, there was smoke still coming out, but it wasn't thick clouds. I have been in Beijing, London, Milan and Los Angeles and the goop in the air was thick enough that breathing protection was a very good idea. I haven't actually worn masks in such cities, other than in Beijing in a cybercafe where the young males smoke while killing each other in cyberspace and the air is thick with goop anyway, from diesels and desert dust. I wore a handkerchief tied around my nose and mouth to at least reduce a little and to make the point that the air was disgusting. I used to enjoy running for fitness, fun and health. I have set out for runs in London [1986] and given up and gone home after a few hundred metres as I decided it was too disgusting and there would be a net health loss from the running. Better to sit in front of the tv and breathe gently, keeping doors and windows shut to keep out the worst of the smoke. I think that the harm over the relatively short time people were working there wouldn't have been much. It wasn't as though they did it for 30 years of their lives. I'd bet that they didn't wear the masks because they couldn't be bothered, and didn't think there was enough in the air to worry about. I'd say the worst culprits causing lung disease after 9/11 were cigarettes [about 20% of firefighters smoke, I suppose, though maybe it's more, or fewer, than normal population rates]. I'm sure that the "evil corporations" would NOT want to be sued for failing to protect their employees, and they would have tried to get them to do the right thing. Mqurice